WASHINGTON -- With gas prices climbing and little relief in sight, President Barack Obama is scrambling to get ahead of the latest potential obstacle to his re-election bid, even as Republicans are making plans to exploit the issue.

No one seems more aware of the electoral peril than Obama himself.

"My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people," he told Democratic donors in Los Angeles last week.

In fact, Obama raised the issue unsolicited in a series of town hall meetings in Virginia, California and Nevada that were ostensibly about his deficit-reduction plan. And he made the gas spike the subject of his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday.

"It's just another burden when things were already pretty tough," he said.

As Obama well knows, Americans love their cars and remain heavily dependent on them, and they don't hesitate to punish politicians when the cost of filling their tanks goes through the roof. Indeed, for presidents, responding to sudden surges is a recurring frustration.

Obama stands by alternative energy as long-term solution

"These gas prices are killing you right now," Obama said at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., acknowledging that many Americans can't afford new fuel-efficient cars and must drive older models. For some, he said, the cost of a fill-up has all but erased the benefit of the payroll tax holiday that he and congressional Republicans agreed on last December.

On Saturday, Obama insisted in his radio and Internet address that the best answer is a long-term drive to develop alternatives to fossil fuel. He also renewed calls to end $4 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies. "Instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy sources," he said, "we need to invest in tomorrow's."

Republicans say Obama is hindering domestic production

Republicans contend that high gas prices are the inevitable result of an administration they accuse of stifling domestic drilling, and which placed new curbs on offshore exploration after last spring's disastrous BP oil spill.

"The administration has declared what can only be described as a war on American energy," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky.

"Obama is vulnerable on gas prices and the Republicans have and will exploit this as a wedge issue," said James Thurber, who directs the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.

Legislative aides report House Republicans are considering a series of hearings and floor votes on measures to boost domestic oil and gas production when Congress returns from its Easter break.

Meantime, Obama has ordered his Justice Department to form a task force to look for fraud or manipulation in the oil markets. It will "root out" any abuses, he told a town hall meeting in Reno, Nev., on Thursday. The president is among those who've said the surging price for crude is caused by worries about political upheaval in the Middle East and increasing demand from China and elsewhere.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.